Andela acquires tech skills assessment platform, Qualified to improve job placement services

Andela, the global tech network that cultivates IT talent in Africa and provides leading global technology companies with access to a high-skilled resource pool, has acquired Qualified, the leading technical skills assessment for developers and software engineers.

This announcement was made by the CEO, Jeremy Johnson, in a blog post. This acquisition will help Andela expand and accelerates its ability to source and expertly assess talent. Speaking on this acquisition, Jeremy Johnson, founder and CEO of Andela, said,

Labor marketplaces are constrained by inefficiencies between supply, demand, and quality —Qualified allows us to address those inefficiencies by providing the certified right talent at the right time. Companies will continue to trust that talent sourced through Andela has the needed skills regardless of where they live and work.

Jeremy Johnson, founder and CEO of Andela

“The tech industry has historically relied on hiring practices that have proven to be ineffective. The expanded platform will allow companies to create hiring processes for software engineers that are predictive of their on-the-job performance. In addition, we provide companies and our growing tech community a bigger, broader, and better opportunity to connect globally.” Jake Hoffner, the Co-founder and CEO of Qualified, added.

Acquiring Qualified will help clients looking to hire and get the right tech talents with the right skill. It will also allow Andela to grow its global talent community by adding more than 3.6M engineering users via Codewars, an online community powered by Qualified.

This online community allows technical talent to compete and improve their practical coding skills through gamified challenges. Although this acquisition will not affect the operations of Codewars and its certificate will be integrated into the Andela platform as a standalone.

On the future of this acquisition, Jeremy Johnson further said,

 We believe that the capabilities of Qualified move us towards a more predictive matching process on our platform. It makes me incredibly excited to consider the efficiency unlock for our clients as they come to understand that Andela now not only provides access to global talent but raises and standardizes the bar at which those engineers are certified.

Jeremy Johnson, founder and CEO of Andela

Read Also: Andela expands beyond software engineers, launches talent-matching platform

Andela’s progressive journey

While this acquisition of Qualified is the first of its kind, Andela has grown to become the “obvious” global marketplace for techies looking to find meaningful work and for clients to find expert talent.

It launched in 2014 as a global talent network that connects companies with vetted, remote technical talent in emerging markets with a hands-on matching process to help clients scale their technical teams.

Its mission seeks to train and provide career opportunities to software developers and cultivate Africa’s IT talents while providing access to a highly-skilled resource pool for these global technology companies.

Year-to-year progress

In 2014, it had its first recruitment cycle of four Nigerian software engineers out of over 700 applications. In 2015, it began international operations and expanded to Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.

In 2016, Andela Kenya launched its first cohort focused on female-only engineers to represent gender equality, especially in Africa. In 2017, it launched Andela Learning Community (ALC) in partnership with Google and Udacity for aspiring developers in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.

In 2018, it launched a pan-African hub in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board, a national agency responsible for facilitating and smoothly running investments. In 2021, it started its global expansion to help talents in emerging markets worldwide.

Read Also: All you need to know about starting up a business in Rwanda

In 2021, Andela raised $200 million in Series E funding led by Softbank Vision Funds 2 with participation from Whale Rock, Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spark Capital.

In 2022, it expanded its open marketplace services with new value-added services like healthcare. With this combination, Andela seeks to build the perfect tech talent for every hire.